China Tells Its Tech Giants To Stop Blocking Rivals' Links (usnews.com) 27
"China fired a fresh regulatory shot at its tech giants on Monday," writes Reuters, "telling them to end a long-standing practice of blocking each other's links on their sites or face consequences."
The comments, made by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) at a news briefing, mark the latest step in Beijing's broad regulatory crackdown that has ensnared sectors from technology to education and property and wiped billions of dollars off the market value of some of the country's largest companies.
China's internet is dominated by a handful of technology giants which have historically blocked links and services by rivals on their platforms. Restricting normal access to internet links without proper reason "affects the user experience, damages the rights of users and disrupts market order," said MIIT spokesperson Zhao Zhiguo, adding that the ministry had received reports and complaints from users since it launched a review of industry practices in July. "At present we are guiding relevant companies to carry out self-examination and rectification," he said, citing instant messaging platforms as one of the first areas they were targeting.
He did not specify what the consequences would be for companies that failed to abide by the new guidelines.
China's internet is dominated by a handful of technology giants which have historically blocked links and services by rivals on their platforms. Restricting normal access to internet links without proper reason "affects the user experience, damages the rights of users and disrupts market order," said MIIT spokesperson Zhao Zhiguo, adding that the ministry had received reports and complaints from users since it launched a review of industry practices in July. "At present we are guiding relevant companies to carry out self-examination and rectification," he said, citing instant messaging platforms as one of the first areas they were targeting.
He did not specify what the consequences would be for companies that failed to abide by the new guidelines.
I welcome our new Chinese overloards (Score:5, Insightful)
If only western countries didn't take this kind nonsense from large corporations.
Re: I welcome our new Chinese overloards (Score:2)
Re: I welcome our new Chinese overloards (Score:1)
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Any government that can actually deliver the basic functions of government looks good right now. Too bad we're not likely to see it anytime soon.
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Some of them don't. I'm not sure if this exact thing has ever come up in Europe, but similar stuff has were users are banned from accessing rival services for no technical reason.
Re: I welcome our new Chinese overloards (Score:2)
You are literally describing Chinese parenting though. Like you should know the parenting style is ridiculous when they make games named after it. Chinese parenting is probably the most brutal form of parenting I can imagine with all the pressure and likewise many reduced choices. Midlife crisis is suppose to happen around 40 or 50 but I have seen girls here breakdown in a similar style before 30 simply because they realized they bent to much to their parents will for their career path. Worse yet most weste
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I had that thought, too. It's helpful that western culture prevents some of these shenanigans--most programmer employees wouldn't even be willing to implement competitive censorship--but there are other cases of anti-consumer behavior that our government does nothing about. The US government loves big business and jobs, but perhaps doesn't see that pro-consumer behavior enables competition (more jobs) and individual flourishing. (Though it's not necessarily good for an economy when a small company with few
Block only what we tell you to block (Score:4, Insightful)
" Restricting normal access to internet links without proper reason " is reserved for governments, as the Falun Gong and Uyghurs of China, the political protesters of the Arab Spring, and Wikileaks can testify.
Re: Block only what we tell you to block (Score:1)
Do you even China? There are far more low hanging fruit to complain about.They block Wikipedia, Facebook, Reddit, and virtually any western news source. Shit steam community is blocked.
Falun gong preaches that their exercises can cure cancer. Uyghurs are fairly extreme and abrasive for a Muslim group. Right now Uyghurs are one of the groups Afghanistan is blaming terrorism on too and multiple terrorist incidents happened in China by this minority. Don't know what's up with Arab Spring but I would guess it w
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The difficulty is not so much when a government sees itself as having parental responsibility. It's when they refuse to allow the children choices to grow up, and trap them in a safe space in which only approved speech can be heard.
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Not just governments, big media corporations also like to block normal web links to protect their copyrights. Chances are many of the people reading this comment can't open https://thepiratebay.org/ [thepiratebay.org] .
What value? (Score:3)
wiped billions of dollars off the market value
No it didn't. The value didn't exist in the first place. Seriously, if merely allowing links to competitors to be posted can make that "value" disappear, then the value wasn't there in the first place.
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Alternatively, it transferred money to those other competitors, which had more value in the first place.
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Maybe you can argue the shedding of the illusion means more money is now available to the wider economy for real value, but I wonder how many entities were relying on their investment to be maintained. I would hazard that it still costs more to the economy than benefit. Really should have tear down the wall sooner.
Re: China is looking up (Score:2)
Bingo. In virtually any great leap by China, there has been some aspect to it caused by our influence in the region as western powers. A fair argument for this exists for the rise of Communism but even more clearly industrial rubber product and the new space race.
Consequences (Score:2)
He did not specify what the consequences would be for companies that failed to abide by the new guidelines.
Why would he need to? Everyone and their dog know what the consequences will be -- no "would" about them.
Tiananmen square (Score:2)
Re: How much Koolaide did you drink? (Score:2)
But keep blocking links they tell you to block. (Score:1)
The key to survival in an authoritarian state is resistance to the natural nausea you feel when confronted by lies and bullying. Your ability to lick boots and smile determines your potential for success.
Scumbags (Score:2)
"Only block the things we tell you to"